Family must ALWAYS come first, says Cameron as he spells out plan to battle social and economic breakdown

13 April 2012

David Cameron today puts the family at the heart of his plans for government and stresses the economic cost of social breakdown.

He will defy political fashion with a passionate defence of marriage as the bedrock of society.

The Tory leader will set out his ambitions to tackle crime and deprivation by reversing the breakdown of family life.

Family man: David Cameron with his wife Samantha and one of his three children Nancy

Family man: David Cameron with his wife Samantha and one of his three children Nancy

He will accuse Gordon Brown of failing to address the causes of a £20billion social crisis marked by record welfare dependency and teenage knife crime.

Mr Cameron has already vowed to reintroduce support for couples in the benefit system and give parents greater rights to put family life first.

Today, in the annual Relate lecture hosted by the marriage guidance charity, he goes further.

He will say: 'Britain has one of the highest rates of family breakdown in Europe. And we also have some of the worst social problems.

"That's why I say it's time for change: to make this country more family-friendly so we can turn around the social breakdown, turn around the crime and antisocial behaviour, turn around this unacceptable situation where our cost of living's going up and the quality of life is going down.

'I don't think we'll ever get to the heart of the big problems we face, from crime and anti-social behaviour to welfare dependency and educational failure; from debt and drug addiction to entrenched poverty and stalled social mobility, if we don't help the best institution in our country  -  the family  -  do the vital work it does in bringing up children.

'What that help is  -  and how it is delivered  -  will be among the defining social reforms of the next Conservative Government.

Mr Cameron will say: 'The number one challenge in this country today is to strengthen our society. There is no more important way of doing that than strengthening families, and there's nothing more important to families than the strength of their relationships.

'This isn't comfortable territory for politicians. Our relationships break down and fail just like other people's, arguably more so. This goes to the heart of people's personal lives  -  and some might say the best thing politicians can do is keep their noses out. But I think that's a bit of a cop-out.

'Politicians are the ones who take taxpayers' money and write billions of pounds worth of cheques to deal with the costs of family breakdown. So I think politicians have a responsibility to do what we can to bring these costs down.

'Relationship support, delivered in the right way to the right people at the right time, can play a major part.

'Think about it like this: the costs of social breakdown have been estimated at £20billion, yet the annual budget of Relate  -  the organisation that does so much to stop the breakdown happening in the first place  -  is only £24million. Doesn't that demonstrate how our priorities are wrong?

'So the right question is not whether politics is involved, but how.

'Because there's such a stigma attached to getting help and advice on your relationship, by the time people do, it's often too late.

'We've got to get rid of that stigma, so relationship support becomes more about crisis prevention than crisis management.

'And I want us to destigmatise relationship support so people feel completely comfortable in getting help from organisations like Relate.

'Government can take a lead here. One way is to start early and insist, for example, that there's no sex education in schools unless it includes relationship education.'

Mr Cameron will add: 'The reason I'm in politics  -  and the reason people work for organisations like Relate  -  is that we believe, we know, that families, given the right support at the right time, can make their own luck and transform their own fortunes.

'There's no magic wand or silver bullet. We've got to change our tax and benefit system, so commitment is rewarded.

'We've got to tackle the longterm causes of poverty, so every child gets the best start in life.

'We've got to change the way we work, so families get to spend more time together.

'We've got to make sure that each family gets the support it needs when the pressure is greatest.

'We've got to improve childcare so it's there to support the choices parents make. We've got to demand that big business becomes every parent's ally, not the enemy.

And we've got to ensure that every family has access to the emotional support and help they need, in the relationship and after separation, should it be necessary.'

Mr Cameron has made great play of being a family man. In March TV cameras were ushered into his West London home to film him and wife Sam having breakfast with their children Ivan, five, Nancy, four, and two-year-old Arthur.

There has also been an online broadcast from his kitchen and the Tory leader has always been happy to be pictured out with his children.

The long-standing strategy to make a feature of his family credentials is in direct contrast to the Prime Minister. Gordon Brown has rarely been seen with his own children John, four, and Fraser, nearly two.

He and his wife Sarah have decided never to talk about Fraser's cystic fibrosis although Mr Brown once opened his heart to Sky TV about the death of his daughter Jennifer Jane.

Mr Cameron and his advisers, including ex-tabloid editor Andy Coulson, have recognised that the public has an almost insatiable appetite for the minutiae of public figures' private lives.

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